Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding his Department has allocated for dementia research in each of the (a) last and (b) next five years.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department funds research on dementia through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Between 2017/18 and 2021/22, the NIHR allocated over £42 million in funding for dementia research. The following table shows the funding allocated to dementia research in each of the last five years.
2017/18 | £7.7 million |
2018/19 | £3.1 million |
2019/20 | £7.8 million |
2020/21 | £11.8 million |
2021/22 | £11.9 million |
Information on expenditure through the NIHR’s infrastructure is not held in the format requested.
The Government has committed to invest £375 million in neurodegenerative disease research over the next five years to fund projects into a range of diseases including dementia. However, it is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for expenditure on particular topics, therefore the information requested on funding dementia research for the next five years is not currently held. The NIHR relies on researchers submitting high-quality applications to access funding.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many clinical jobs there are in the NHS; what proportion of those jobs are staffed by overseas workers; and how many vacancies in clinical roles there are, as of 15 June 2022. .
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) workforce statistics. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in England, but not staff working in primary care or in general practice surgeries, local authorities or other providers. The information requested as of 15 June 2022 is not currently held. However, as of December 2021, there were 642,560 full-time equivalent (FTE) professionally qualified clinical staff working in National Health Service trusts and CCGs. This includes 127,959 doctors and 339,942 nurses, midwives and health visitors.
The following table shows the FTE number and proportion of professionally qualified clinical staff by self-reported nationality as at December 2021. Nationality does not imply that workers were trained or previously worked overseas.
Staff group | Total FTE | Number of staff with non-United Kingdom nationalities | Proportion of staff with non-UK nationalities |
Professionally qualified clinical staff | 642,560 | 133,848 | 20.8% |
Including: |
|
|
|
Ambulance staff | 18,042 | 1,199 | 6.6% |
HCHS doctors | 127,959 | 40,660 | 31.8% |
Scientific, therapeutic and technical staff | 156,617 | 17,708 | 11.3% |
Nurses, midwives and health visitors | 339,942 | 74,281 | 21.9% |
Source: NHS Digital Workforce Statistics
NHS Digital publishes quarterly vacancy data collected by NHS England and NHS Improvement for NHS hospital trusts for three staff groups: doctors, registered nurses and ‘other staff’. The following table shows the number of FTE nursing vacancies and medical vacancies as of March 2022. Many of the vacancies will be filled by bank and agency staff.
Nursing | 38,972 |
Medical | 8,016 |
Other staff | 58,867 |
Total workforce | 105,855 |
Source: NHS Digital Vacancy Statistics
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made in supporting the development of new treatments for serious diseases, including through the Cancer Drugs Fund; and what future plans he has to support the development of such treatments through (a) the Cancer Drugs Fund and (b) the Innovative Medicines Fund.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) supports patient access to the most promising new licensed cancer medicines and has benefitted more than 80,000 patients, with funding provided for 96 medicines treating 218 different cancers. We are providing £340 million for the Innovative Medicines Fund (IMF) will support early access for National Health Service patients to new non-cancer medicines while further evidence is collected to address clinical uncertainty. This data will inform a future National Institute for Care and Health Excellence assessment of whether the medicine is cost effective. In addition, the Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway and Project Orbis will support the rapid introduction of effective new medicines for the benefit of NHS patients.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help people tackle gambling addictions.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Department has responsibility for the treatment of gambling-related harms in England. The NHS Long Term Plan announced the creation of 15 specialist gambling clinics in England by 2023/24 to treat those experiencing severe gambling addiction. Five clinics are in operation, with a further three sites expected to open this year. NHS England intend to undertake one selection exercise for the location of the remaining seven clinics. This is expected to commence in July 2022, with all clinics to mobilise during Quarter 4 of 2022/23.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport will shortly publish a white paper on proposals for gambling reform across Great Britain.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to make it easier for people with (a) learning disabilities and (b) autism to be discharged from hospital.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The NHS Long Term Plan committed to achieving at least a 50% reduction in the number of people with a learning disability and autistic people who are inpatients in mental health hospitals by March 2024. In 2022/23, we are investing more than £90 million in community services and support for discharges in England for people with a learning disability and autistic people. This includes £21 million for the Community Discharge Grant.
The Building the Right Support programme aims to strengthening community support and reduce reliance on specialist inpatient care in mental health hospitals. We will publish an action plan for the programme as soon as possible.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress the Government has made on its commitment to extend healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035.
Answered by Maggie Throup
We will set out a strategy to address the causes of health inequalities in the health disparities white paper, which we expect to publish later this year.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people are employed by the NHS in a non-clinical capacity with a salary in excess of £160,000 as at 13 September 2021.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
NHS Digital produces information on staff earnings in the hospital and community health sector which covers staff working for hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups in England but does not cover the independent sector, social care or primary care. There were 383 staff with total earnings of at least £160,000 in National Health Service infrastructure support in the period April 2020 to March 2021, which is the latest data available.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many non-clinical vacancies exist in the NHS with salary expectations in excess of £160,000 per annum as at 13 September 2021. .
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department does not hold the information requested.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the level of overseas applicants for clinical positions in relation to demand.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Information on the number of overseas applicants to clinical positions is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the number of clinical vacancies across the NHS; and what steps he is taking to increase recruitment accordingly.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The latest data for June 2021 shows that there are over 38,900 nursing and midwifery vacancies almost 9,700 doctor vacancies. Some of these vacancies will be filled by bank and agency staff.
We are recruiting 50,000 more nurses in this Parliament and supporting record numbers of people to enter medical and nursing training programmes. Alongside this the NHS Retention Programme is continuously seeking to understand why staff leave, resulting in targeted interventions to support staff to stay in the National Health Service.